Understood to be more or less a wide band of wood (outer growth rings), that surrounds the heartwood. Depending on the species of tree, sapwood can be identified by its lighter colour in contrast to the inner, darker area the heart. Sapwood is made up of living, active wood cells, while the heartwood is characterised by dead cells.

Sapwood trees are tree species that consist primarily of sapwood. These include alder, birch and maple.

With sawn veneer, the wood is sawn into very thin sheets on the veneer mill or on the veneer and jointing circular saw. As the wood is not steamed beforehand, sawn veneer looks like solid wood in its colour and grain. Since a lot of waste is produced, it is generally only used for very expensive furniture.

Important part of floor construction. The function of screed is essentially to level out height differences in the bare floor and to guarantee an even base for the final flooring. Screed is generally made from cement mortar, mastic asphalt, artificial resin, plaster and magnesite or from plaster boards. One differentiates between bonded screed, screed on the separation layer and screed on the insulation layer (floating floor screed) and between wet screed and dry screed.

Decrease in the dimensions of the wood due to a decrease in moisture (also see swelling).

For grounding/colouring, wood can also be smoked. Oak is especially well suited for smoking. In smokehouses, oak that is steamed under heat and pressure is treated with ammonia until it assumes a dark to black hue and is smoked through to the core (i.e. up to the heartwood).

In contrast to hardwood, softwood refers to lighter wood. The term was originally coined for customs purposes and was used for wood with a darr density of below 0.55 g/cm³. It includes almost all coniferous woods and some woods from deciduous trees such as willow, poplar and linden.

Solid wood is the technical term for wood in its grown, natural structure (in contrast to derived timber products, which are manufactured from wood that has been cut off and put back together with the grain going in different directions). Solid wood is used as sawn timber (beams, planks, boards, battens, posts, struts, poles or sleepers).

Mostly evergreen conifers of the Pinaceae family, which may also grow shrub-like in certain conditions. Depending on their origin, spruce trees standing alone may have a pyramid or column-shaped crown.

Spruces have very distinctive growth rings. In spring they grow light. The further the annual growth period progresses, the darker the rings become. The longitudinal section of spruce shows a prominent grain or striation. Resin pockets occur. As the branches are usually oriented downwards, the sawn timber has an oval profile, which, along with the characteristic resin ducts, helps to distinguish it from the round, harder and darker fir tree branches. The colouring ranges from uniform white to yellowish white to reddish white, excluding a heartwood colour (mature wood). While the latewood is reddish yellow, the earlywood almost always appears white. The spruce has a striking mature tinge of yellowish brown to light brown.

Sawn timber with a square or rectangular cross section. As construction timber, the minimum dimensions of squared timber are 6 cm X 6 cm and are differentiated by thinner cross sections, such as battens or floorboards. The large cross cut side is at most three times as large as the small one. Squared timber is used in construction and cabinet making, where it is used to make table legs, bracings and back rests.

Wood can be stained, i.e. have its natural wood colour modified using ammonia gas or liquid stain, while the wood structure is retained and remains visible.

Occurs when the wood absorbs moisture from the air in order to adjust its moisture content to the surroundings. This inevitably happens if the air humidity is higher than the wood moisture content. The cells that absorb the water expand and the wood swells.